Copyright The Washington Post Company Jul 31,
1989
In a euphoric and defiant closing session,
delegates to the First Congress of Chinese Students called for
the overthrow of the current regime in China and declared
themselves independent of the "illegitimate"
government.
With several prominent Chinese dissidents
present, the Congress issued a strongly worded manifesto that
condemned "the crimes committed by the Deng, Li, Yang
regime."
The manifesto, coming at the end of the
three-day meeting, said, "The day when we bring Deng, Li,
Yang to trial cannot be far." The call to bring to justice
China's principal leader Deng Xiaoping, Premier Li Peng and
President Yang Shangkun-whom the students blame for the June 4
massacre in Beijing's Tiananmen Square-brought the packed house
of more than 1,000 to its feet roaring and waving the victory
sign.
The students formed the Federation of
Independent Chinese Student Unions, an umbrella organization for
Chinese student groups across the United States, to advance the
prodemocracy movement in China from exile.
Before the weekend meeting at the University
of Illinois at Chicago, the Chinese Communist Party had
maintained close ties to all overseas Chinese student groups in
an effort to monitor student activities. Today, students in the
federation effectively broke all ties with the government.
"Li Peng's regime no longer has
legitimacy over us," said Liu Yungchun, a 29-year-old
doctoral candidate in sociology from Stanford University who was
elected president of the federation.
A Beijing University graduate, Liu said one
of the organization's first acts will be to hold a day-long
memorial Sept. 12 commemorating the 100th day after the
Tiananmen Square massacre. No site for the memorial has been
picked, he said. Liu today said he hoped no harm will come to
his parents, who are still in China, because of his leadership
role in the federation, which the Chinese government will
undoubtedly label "counterrevolutionary."
The federation's vice president, Han Lianchao,
a 33-year-old Yale Law School student, said today he renounced
his membership in the Chinese Communist Party. Han had worked as
a government lawyer in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The governing board of the
federation-consisting of an executive branch, a council and a
supervisory committee-is modeled after the U.S. system of checks
and balances, organizers said.
